WJC Day 4 RECAP: Closer than it should be

12/30/2024 07:00 AM

A lot of yesterday's games made a bunch of teams sweat when they shouldn't have. Let's get into it!

Game 1: The Swiss come alive too late to save them, Sweden survives in 7-5 victory

This was fun but if I was Sweden's coach I'd be sweating bullets after that third period.

Game Notes

• The Swiss were already down by about 4 goals by the time they decided they were tired of getting kicked around, and spent the rest of the 3rd period furiously following up on a Kimo Gruber goal by hammering the Swedish net for the final 15 minutes of the game, with only Axel Sandin-Pellikka responding. The work that Switzerland did in the final period is something they can finally take into the final game of the tournament; meaning they'll get their one goal against the Kazakhstan.
• So hey there, Sweden! What was the three goals at the very end of the game all about? You don't think that might come back to haunt you? Czechs look pretty good right about now! Let's hope that this is just a silly little bit of score effects after all that!

Game 2: Finland gets their first win in OT against the US in a 4-3 Thriller!

Well what do you know? The US can bleed!

Game Notes

• Well the US decided that they'd had enough of being a skulldrinking juggernaut and decided to fall into the same traps they usually do whenever they come to these tournaments as favorites; in that they indeed, farted around, tried to play catch-up the entire game when their farting around got penalized by the other team showing up ready to go, and eventually fell on a bad mistake. I expect the US will course correct big time now that they get to play Canada, so if you're a fan of northern suffering lets hope this effort was just load management hitting a snag.
• Finland meanwhile probably showed more gumption in one game than they did in their last two; they knew their opponent could bring them to a dark place and they were on the United States the entire game; out-shot 'em, created some great goals, and finished it off en route to playing Latvia on Tuesday. I would caution them on considering that an easy W, but they've earned their W and their rest for the evening on this game.

Game 3: Czechia and Slovakia mix things up with a tight 4-2 win

This game clearly saw all those events happening in the other games and decided to slow things down as a palate cleanser.

Game Notes

• Vojtech Hradec got a shorty on one of the most unforgivable turnovers I've seen outside of a Tyler Myers shift. While the Slovaks were largely playing this game kinda tight, the mistakes they made were genuinely some of the most baffling I've seen, a couple of which was the major difference for this game. It was a tight game otherwise, which made the gaffes all the more galling when they did happen.
• Slovakia probably should've found a way to score more than once on the man advantage, because the Czechs spent the entire game racking up penalties like nobody's business. They finally broke through on Dvorsky's tally on a 5-on-3, but it was too little; too late. Oh well, onto the rubber match against Kazakhstan; I'm sure it'll lift your spirits!

Game 4: Canada blanks Germany in 3-0 snoozefest

A game described by the official website as an "ekeing" out of a win, and frankly? I don't 100% disagree?

Game Notes

• Canada scored once in the 1st period and then promptly sat on their hands for the rest of the game; always in charge of the shot count but never quite pulling away until someone made it clear to these kids that maybe they shouldn't be clinging to a 1-0 lead to Germany of all teams, and popped two extra goals in within the last five minutes. It was a game that Canada definitely needed, but it definitely highlighted that while they can still kill the lesser powers with ease...Canada isn't exactly playing their best right now.
• Germany's fate may be decided today against the Latvians; I'm no betting man necessarily, but I would be very interested to see if they could summon the goals necessary to beat them.

Game 1: Slovakia vs. Kazakhstan

Honestly? Skip this one. Kazakhstan has a date with the headsman's axe and they're not going to miss it.

Game 2: Germany vs. Latvia

A game with actual stakes in intergroup play. My goodness.

Latvia wins here, and they are all but a lock for the knockout round, and the Germans desperately want to take a major leap here. This may be their last chance before meeting the axe, so both teams are VERY ready to go and make something brilliant.